Federal Highway Administration Administrators

GENERAL ROY STONE

1893 — 1899Director/Office of Road Inquiry

Military Officer — Inventor — Engineer — Writer — Traveler

On October 3, 1893, Secretary of Agriculture J. Sterling Morton
instituted the Office of Road Inquiry and appointed General Roy Stone,
formerly Secretary for the National League of Good Roads, as Special
Agent and Engineer for Road Inquiry.

Earlier in 1893, the Office had been authorized by a statute
enacted by the Fifty-second Congress and approved March 3, 1893, by
President Benjamin Harrison.

The statute read in part: "To enable the Secretary of
Agriculture to make inquiries in regard to the systems of road
management throughout the United States, to make investigations in
regard to the best methods of road-making, and to enable him to assist
the agricultural college and experiment stations in disseminating
information on this subject."

General Stone was a professional civil and mechanical engineer;
a military hero who distinguished himself in the Civil War and again in
the Spanish-American War; an astute organizer; and the architect of
many State-aid laws for U.S. roads.

He proposed the first parcel post, the first rural free delivery, and postal savings banks.